Player Discussion Alex Formenton

[Ice-Tray]

Good Riddance. This guy's poor character decisions were a major part of why this season started off on the wrong foot. There was so much promise about our new season until we became team sexual assault.

Seems a broad brush to pain the team with.

 

[Tuna99]

1) No insider information. He is being judged by society at this time.

2) Disagree, 1+1 = 2 here and everywhere else. He is judged guilty here, he is judged guilty everywhere. It is only a lack of information that allows him to play elsewhere. If Europeans knew what we know, he woudl also be banned there too, but since he is valuable to a hockey team... mums the word so to speak.

3) We = Society. However, given that this is totally subjective "We" have only decided to prevent him from plying in the NHL this year.

I totally agree with your last sentence.

My whole point is that we are using a mob mentality to punish a person that has not been found criminally guilty of any crime, nor will he ever be found guilty of any crime. (I assume as this is what 4 perhaps 5 years ago now.)

We as a society need to accept that this is what we have chosen to do.

We didn’t do anything. The GM didn’t sign him and Formenton didn’t sign his qualifying offer - we have nothing to do with it.

And is he being judged? He played in the WJC, NHL, OHL. He was offered $1 million dollars to play hockey this year and said no. He made mistakes that he has to take responsibility for.

Good Riddance. This guy's poor character decisions were a major part of why this season started off on the wrong foot. There was so much promise about our new season until we became team sexual assault.

Batherson looks like shit too, whatever happened that nigh has affected him. He looks deflated From the pre-season

 

[CorrectOpinion]

We didn’t do anything. The GM didn’t sign him and Formenton didn’t sign his qualifying offer - we have nothing to do with it.

And is he being judged? He played in the WJC, NHL, OHL. He was offered $1 million dollars to play hockey this year and said no. He made mistakes that he has to take responsibility for.



Batherson looks like shit too, whatever happened that nigh has affected him. He looks deflated From the pre-season

It's possible we lose them both in the end.

 

[Icelevel]

long enough. Just go away so we can forget this shit.
Unless we can be convinced that he had absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

[Tuna99]

It's possible we lose them both in the end.

That’s okay. Changes have to be made anyways so why not ship out these two?

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Batherson looks like shit too, whatever happened that nigh has affected him. He looks deflated From the pre-season

Batherson was great at the beginning of this year, I don't think the WJ scandal is what's affecting him.

 

[robsenz]

This guy is going to become our next Wikstrand, just let him go.

 

[jbeck5]

long enough. Just go away so we can forget this shit.
Unless we can be convinced that he had absolutely nothing to do with it.

If no charges are made, I don't see why him and his agent wouldn't start making it seem like this whole thing was a misunderstanding and he did nothing wrong...and no one will be able to say anything otherwise because we won't have any evidence of wrongdoing...or else he would be charged.

 

[Sun God Nika]

This guy is going to become our next Wikstrand, just let him go.

Weird take. Completely different situations.

Formenton is a NHL player who wants to play in the NHL.

Wikstrand was a promising NHL prospect who didn’t want to go through the process and gave up on his dream

 

[jbeck5]

Weird take. Completely different situations.

Formenton is a NHL player who wants to play in the NHL.

Wikstrand was a promising NHL prospect who didn’t want to go through the process and gave up on his dream

I forget if it was on coming in hot or Wally and methot but Wally had a story of how wikstrand left after (or maybe even mid) practice and took the next flight home and his agent said something like "he doesn't want to get hit anymore. He's done. He's going home" lol he hated how physical the game was. He would get hit on the forecheck when he was retrieving pucks and got scared.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

If no charges are made, I don't see why him and his agent wouldn't start making it seem like this whole thing was a misunderstanding and he did nothing wrong...and no one will be able to say anything otherwise because we won't have any evidence of wrongdoing...or else he would be charged.

I don't know about that. There's quite a chasm between pressing charges and no evidence of wrongdoing. A lot of times charges and criminal proceedings don't go forward if the proseution doesn't think they have a good chance of winning. There definitely can be some evidence there....just not enough for the courts.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Good Riddance. This guy's poor character decisions were a major part of why this season started off on the wrong foot. There was so much promise about our new season until we became team sexual assault.

Oh perhaps you can tell us his role in all of this then.

Wait.. What's that... oh you can't because you don't know it precisely.. And you don't know what decisions he actually made .. I see

 

[jbeck5]

I don't know about that. There's quite a chasm between pressing charges and no evidence of wrongdoing. A lot of times charges and criminal proceedings don't go forward if the proseution doesn't think they have a good chance of winning. There definitely can be some evidence there....just not enough for the courts.

Sure, but If there's not enough evidence to convict, then he must be presumed innocent until there is.

If there isn't enough evidence to convict, then he will be able to easily speak out against how none of the evidence confirms anything and that it's just circumstancial or something. And there will be nothing we can say. We would just have to move on or find better evidence.

 

[coladin]

Police cleared this once. There is nothing more that they want than to celar it again. Police don't like to be shown up, and I don't see how this initial decision gets overturned

 

[DaveMatthew]

Police cleared this once. There is nothing more that they want than to celar it again. Police don't like to be shown up, and I don't see how this initial decision gets overturned

This. An allegation like this doesn't take 7 months to re-investigate. And that's where we're at. The most likely scenario is that the investigators know there's nothing there to overturn the initial decision to not prosecute, and are just dragging their feet. It's not a major priority for London Police. The more time that goes by, the less media uproar there'll be when the inevitable press release comes out.

And I bet people (+ TSN) get back on the HC bandwagon the second Connor Bedard scores a highlight reel goal in Moncton.

Formenton will be back in the NHL next year, but not in this organization. He'll probably end up traded for a throwaway 5th or 6th round pick at the draft.

 

[Senscore]

This. An allegation like this doesn't take 7 months to re-investigate. And that's where we're at. The most likely scenario is that the investigators know there's nothing there to overturn the initial decision to not prosecute, and are just dragging their feet. It's not a major priority for London Police. The more time that goes by, the less media uproar there'll be when the inevitable press release comes out.

And I bet people (+ TSN) get back on the HC bandwagon the second Connor Bedard scores a highlight reel goal in Moncton.

Formenton will be back in the NHL next year, but not in this organization. He'll probably end up traded for a throwaway 5th or 6th round pick at the draft.

One team will decide to eat the PR uproar (Boston and Montreal have already been willing to do this recently to mixed results), people will be upset for a few weeks, and then after that their team will be better and ours will be worse.

So it goes.

 

[DaveMatthew]

One team will decide to eat the PR uproar (Boston and Montreal have already been willing to do this recently to mixed results), people will be upset for a few weeks, and then after that their team will be better and ours will be worse.

So it goes.

I doubt there'll be that much PR uproar, considering every other player involved is still playing in the league. One of them is on the team here, and outside that one day at the beginning of camp, no one seems to care all that much.

 

[Senscore]

I doubt there'll be that much PR uproar, considering every other player involved is still playing in the league. One of them is on the team here, and outside that one day at the beginning of camp, no one seems to care all that much.

Possibly, but given that he may be the only one left holding any sort of tangible blame, any residual anger over it will be directed his way.

And I think there will be some, since this was the impetus for major pushback against Hockey Canada. People expect some sort of justice as they've been given the impression a crime has taken place (and it's possible one did indeed take place), but when it becomes clear that nothing will effectively happen, there will be some emotional response to that.

But if teams are willing to stomach the media cycle then they will be fine. Edmonton really hasn't suffered for bringing Evander Kane over.

 

[robsenz]

Weird take. Completely different situations.

Formenton is a NHL player who wants to play in the NHL.

Wikstrand was a promising NHL prospect who didn’t want to go through the process and gave up on his dream

Not talking about comparable situations. He's never playing in an Ottawa uniform again.

 

[CorrectOpinion]

Oh perhaps you can tell us his role in all of this then.

Wait.. What's that... oh you can't because you don't know it precisely.. And you don't know what decisions he actually made .. I see

He would have been signed unless the Sens had a good reason not to do so.

 

[CorrectOpinion]

Possibly, but given that he may be the only one left holding any sort of tangible blame, any residual anger over it will be directed his way.

And I think there will be some, since this was the impetus for major pushback against Hockey Canada. People expect some sort of justice as they've been given the impression a crime has taken place (and it's possible one did indeed take place), but when it becomes clear that nothing will effectively happen, there will be some emotional response to that.

But if teams are willing to stomach the media cycle then they will be fine. Edmonton really hasn't suffered for bringing Evander Kane over.

I think the average person is probably more willing to give Evander Kane a second chance than Alex Formenton.

 

[DaveMatthew]

He would have been signed unless the Sens had a good reason not to do so.

"Good reason" can be many things. The Senators may have no additional information about the extent of Formenton's involvement/potential legal consequences, but avoiding any ugly PR fallout could have been deemed a good enough reason not to sign him.

At the end of the day, I think his agent mishandled it. He must have thought that all of this would have blown over by December 1st and Ottawa, or some other team would have given Formenton a multi-year deal. But it it didn't and they didn't.

In hindsight, he should have just signed the qualifying offer. He'd be playing right now, just like everyone else from that team.

 

[SPF6ty9]

Possibly, but given that he may be the only one left holding any sort of tangible blame, any residual anger over it will be directed his way.

And I think there will be some, since this was the impetus for major pushback against Hockey Canada. People expect some sort of justice as they've been given the impression a crime has taken place (and it's possible one did indeed take place), but when it becomes clear that nothing will effectively happen, there will be some emotional response to that.

But if teams are willing to stomach the media cycle then they will be fine. Edmonton really hasn't suffered for bringing Evander Kane over.

Everyone seems to forget these issues eventually over time, the acquiring team is basically always the winner. No one seems to care that Kareem Hunt is scoring TDs for Cleveland or when Roberto Osuna led the league in saves for Houston.

It's kind of an interesting look too at how the public response factors into these decisions and punishments. No doubt the increased penalties for criminal acts that has happened over time in sports is a good thing. But I mean that it seems when an act has a released public video or photos or high news penetration, it is treated harsher than those without. That's how you end up in a situation where an at the time top 5 RB like Kareem Hunt who had a video (or Adrian Peterson as another example coming off a season leading the league in rushing, who had photos) gets released while an at the time top 5 WR like Tyreek Hill who had neither photos or videos continues his career with no one really remembering what he did. Not that it's relevant here, other than the amount of publicity an act gets seems to correlate pretty highly with a punishment and negative outcome for the team rostering that player. And the Hockey Canada story was pretty big with sports fans and non sports fans in Canada.

Would be interesting someday to get the full story on Formenton and what the front office knows. I have no illusions that the athletes we cheer for are all saints, they're just a group of regular young people, which have its good and bad individuals within, given lots of money which tends to breed bad decisions. But ya, I've just seen this song and dance enough times to know that at the end of the day, Ottawa will lose and some other team will benefit.

 

[DaveMatthew]

I think the average person is probably more willing to give Evander Kane a second chance than Alex Formenton.

I agree, which is fascinating. The social anger machine doesn't hold everyone to the same standard. So many nuances and things at play.

 

[CorrectOpinion]

"Good reason" can be many things. The Senators may have no additional information about the extent of Formenton's involvement/potential legal consequences, but avoiding any ugly PR fallout could have been deemed a good enough reason not to sign him.

At the end of the day, I think his agent mishandled it. He must have thought that all of this would have blown over by December 1st and Ottawa, or some other team would have given Formenton a multi-year deal. But it it didn't and they didn't.

In hindsight, he should have just signed the qualifying offer. He'd be playing right now, just like everyone else from that team.

Right, but in terms of hockey he obviously deserved more than they offered. So they low-balled him because of the scandal, thus sending a "subtle" message of we don't want you. Giving someone a shitty offer is the same as not signing them at all.